The Fall
by TheNerdshipper
Summary: A Shamy to eventual Shenny. It kind of dark with perceived tragedy and death, but gets brighter. The main cast is here and then some. A bit OOC and AU.
1. Chapter 1

"Sheldon NOOOOOOOOOO!"

Penny jolted upright in bed drenched in a cold sweat. The nightmares would not leave her alone. It been two months since the horrific accident.

"Penny, what wrong? Is it the nightmares again?" a worried Leonard asked.

"I killed him Leonard. I killed him! I saw the look of fear in his eyes. He is dead Leonard and it all my fault!"

"Shhh, Penny. Breath. Take some deep breaths. Remember, it not your fault. Breath Penny, breath."

Penny slowly started to calm down as Leonard rubbed her back.

"You had to make an incredible difficult decision that no one should ever have to make. To be honest, I am surprised that you held on as long as you did. As much as you wanted to, you couldn't save us both. While I am eternally grateful that you chose me, I'm suffering too. I lost my best friend. I can't imagine what Amy is feeling."

**Two months earlier**

"Sheldon, Penny and Leonard has invited us to the grand opening of a new restaurant down in Santa Monica this Thursday. It an Anything-can-happen-Thursday and I thought it might be fun."

"Now Amy, don't be using logic against me. You know how I am about restaurants. How do I know what kind of training the staff has had? Do you even know the menu? Perhaps I might have some sort of food allergy you don't know about? Did you ever think of that?

"Sheldon please. You are being ridiculous. Penny already checked it out and vetted it when she took Leonard last week for the soft opening. For a place called the 'Seaside Rails', she was really impressed"

Rolling his eyes, Sheldon torted back "Really Amy, the 'Seaside Rails'? What kind of restaurant uses 'Rails' in it name? Makes it sounds like some sort of train themed place."

"That because it is Sheldon."

"Oh, well why didn't you say so? I do love trains."

Amy could only shake her head and walk away to call Penny and let her know they were coming.

Sheldon enjoyed the dinner tremendously. The dining room was made to resemble dinner cars on a train. There were some historical inaccuracies that he desperately wanted to point out, but Penny saw the twitches and would glare at him to shut him up before complaining. After the dinner, they took a walk along the back patio area that overlooked a cliff.

"Sheldon?" Amy asked "Have you seen my sweater? It feeling a little chilly out here"

"Yes Amy, you left it in the backseat of your car."

"Oh okay, I'll be right back."

Amy practically skipped to the car. The evening has been a most wonderful evening for her. Sheldon didn't complain too much and the food was rather good. Now they were taking a walk that Sheldon would not have done a year ago. As she started back, there was a loud rumble and it felt like the ground gave out. People were screaming everywhere. To her horror, it looked like the back patio dropped down a few feet. She ran as fast as her legs would let her. She started to panic at what she saw.

The ground by the patio had started to crumble and pull away. The cliff edge looked like it was about to slide off. The back side of the restaurant wall had collapse. Penny, Leonard and Sheldon was trapped by the debris.

An unholy sound filled the air and a dust cloud formed. When the dust settled in what felt like eternity, Amy could only hold a hand over her mouth in shock. Penny was on the ground and appeared to be leaning over the edge of the cliff. In one hand, she held Sheldon while in the other hand, she was holding Leonard. Each of one of them pleading for Penny to pull them up. Each one of them kicking and trying to find any kind of a foothold. Each one of them holding on to her for dear life.

Penny was struggling. In each hand, she had someone she loved dearly. She loved them in their own special way. She easily could have ended up with either one of them. She had sudden flashbacks starting back when she first moved across the hall. It went past in a blur but she saw all the good times and the bad. To her surprise, she started seeing more memories of Sheldon than Leonard. As much as she loved them both, she can't save them both. In her heart, it was Sheldon. If she was going to be completely honest, it was always him. He was the guy. The pain in her shoulders was growing rapidly and it brought her back to the moment.

"Hang on!" she called out and she started to pull Sheldon up a little. Not knowing Penny was pulling him up more, Sheldon continued to kick. He found a foothold and started to stand. Unfortunately, the foothold gave causing him to fall. The momentum was too great for Penny and she lost her grip.

"Sheldon NOOOOOOOOOO!"

Sheldon eyes went wide with the sheer look of fear as he realized he was falling. The last words he spoke just before hitting the water was "Penny, I love you."

Not realizing what had just happened, Leonard continued to kick and climb. With her free arm, Penny was able to grab on to him and pull him up. It was then that the gravity of the situation sunk in. Looking over Penny's shoulder, Leonard could see Amy collapsing to the ground.


	2. Chapter 2

"Penny, let me make you some tea. Neither of us has to be at work tomorrow. Let talk about this a little. It helps to talk about him."

Penny shook her head in agreement and Leonard left to start the tea. Leonard phone lit up with a text. It was from Raj telling Leonard to turn on the TV. Raj had gone back to India for a few weeks to be a guest lecturer at a new observatory and hopefully see a new comet. Penny tossed the phone on the bed thinking Raj wasn't paying attention to the time zones again. Her phone chirped with a text from Howard with a similar message. Leonard called out that the tea was ready and she walked out to the kitchen.

Penny and Leonard sat at the counter and shared some of the memories about Sheldon. They were lost in their memories when they realized their tea had started to grow cold. A loud banging was heard on the front door with Howard shouting. Before they could stand up, Howard opened the door with a spare key.

"For heaven sake people, turn on the TV! I've been calling and texting! Raj has been trying as well."

"Howard, you wanna catch me up here? Penny had a rough night with another nightmare. I'm not sure this is a good time. Yes, we know Raj is in India and maybe found his comet while there. We were talking about Sheldon and ….

Howard pushed Leonard out of the way as he turned on the tv and tried to find a channel.

"Leonard! Shut up and look. Sheldon is alive!"

Leonard and Penny turned their attention towards the TV at a 24 hour new channel based in London.

A small yacht was recently found a drift. It had become disabled during a hurricane and lost it mast along with the radio antenna. When they didn't check in for several days, a search team was called in as one of the passengers was a minor European celebrity. After a few weeks of not finding anything or hearing anything more, it was presumed the ship was lost. The yacht eventually drifted near a shipping lane where it was eventually spotted. It took several more weeks before a rescue tug could catch up and bring it to Hawaii.

The new station was replaying a bedside interview that the celebrity was giving from the hospital. When asked how they survived for so long without help, she boasted how they had some sort of a beautiful mind guy on board that was wicked smart and knew so much stuff about everything. The camera panned to next bed over. Bandaged up, laid Sheldon sleeping. The celebrity walked over and gave a small kiss to his forehead and whispered, "Thank you Sheldon for everything."

Penny slowly reached up and touched the TV. Her fingers gingerly touched the screen as though she was trying to reach Sheldon. A small tear escaped from her eye as she turned around to see Amy standing in the door with Bernadette.

Three women ran towards each other for a group hug. "Amy!" Penny shouted. "He is alive. He is alive!"


	3. Chapter 3

"Amy!" Penny shouted. "He is alive. He is alive!"

"Yes Penny, I knew." Amy said meekly.

"Wait, what?! You knew? How could you?" Penny sobbed 

"Penny, Sheldon told me not to tell. Now listen, you had a rough night and there are too many raw emotions flying around right now. I suggest we all get some sleep. In the morning, I'll tell you all what is going on. Let meet back here at 10. 

Penny was coaxed back to bed and the rest of the gang went home promising they would be back in the morning. Leonard sighed and wondered what Sheldon was up to. 

Everyone came back like they said and found Penny setting in Sheldon's spot. Her eyes were red from crying all night and throughout the morning. Amy was the last to show up. After urging everyone to hold their questions for the end, she began to explain everything.

Sheldon survived the fall with some minor injuries. The wind was knocked out of him and he gone into a bit of shock. Luck or fortune, he was able to crawl up to the shore. There was a little beach party that was wrapping up. A yacht was hosting shore leave for some of the guests. In his stupor, Sheldon was mistaken as a drunk passenger and was brought on board. It wasn't until several days later that he recovered and his identity confirmed. He was deemed a stowaway and the captain confined him to quarters except for meals. The ship was heading to Hawaii to keep a schedule and did not want to turn around.

By the time they reached Hawaii, Sheldon had surprisingly won over the guests and crew. There was a celebrity named Kelly on board that had taken a fascination of him and that helped his cause tremendously. The pair spent a long time together while on board. Kelly used her status to get Sheldon access to the ship's messaging center. Sheldon was then able to contact Amy and relay all that had happened. He severed the relationship agreement with Amy. He had realized for quite some time that their relationship was never going to work. He simply didn't know how to tell her and keep their friendship. Over the course a week, Sheldon and Amy were able to talk twice a day. She too, came to the same conclusion that they were better off as friends. It took him all week, but he was finally able to admit his feelings about Penny. He was also rather saddened that Penny choose to save Leonard instead of him. He confessed that it broke his heart and that there were times where he wished he did die because his eidetic memory caused him to relive that night over and over.

Upon hearing this, Penny started to ugly cry. In a horse voice, Penny cried out. "Sheldon doesn't know. Sheldon doesn't know!" and then ran off to Sheldon's room. Even through the closed door and down the hall, the rest of them could hear her waling. Leonard put his head into his hands while the rest of the gang had confused looks. After about 10 minutes, Penny came back out. She then explained her side of the story on that eventful night. That during the struggle, she started to have flashbacks of various memories of both Leonard and Sheldon. Then the flashbacks were only of Sheldon. She then realized that she did in fact truly love Sheldon and that he was the one she needed to save. After she made the conscious decision to save him, Penny lost her grip on him. She wasn't going to lose both of them so she then turned to save Leonard.

Everyone then understood and it all made sense. Sheldon and Penny always had that "connection" from day one. Yes, they picked on and drove the other up a wall. Despite all that, they were back to being friends in short order. Penny got Sheldon to do things that no one else could. In turn, Sheldon helped Penny out in ways that no one thought possible. They were complete opposite and yet completely perfect for each other.

Amy continued the story. After Hawaii, the yacht then proceeded towards Mexico. Sheldon had fallen into a bit of depression because although he loves Penny, he didn't see how she could ever reciprocate the feelings. As such, he didn't know if he could ever talk to her again. To no one in particular, Penny cried out that she does love her Moonpie. Amy then proceeded to explain that she lost contact with Sheldon. It wasn't until they were rescued that she got the rest of the story. There was a Pacific Ocean hurricane that disabled the yacht and caused it to drift. Sheldon was single handedly responsible for keeping everyone alive. Years of preparing for various apocalyptic events gave him the knowledge to figure things out. Thinking he had lost Penny, he poured himself in making sure that the everyone else survived. If figured that if he died in the process, his heart ache would go away. Everyone had wet eyes by this point.

They were all equally shocked when Amy said that Sheldon did not wish to come home to Pasadena. While he valued his time and the friendship he made, losing Penny was too much to bear. He needed a fresh start. He did though, had one final request for Penny. There was something that he wished for her to have. Amy explained that it was a riddle of some sort that didn't make any sense but explained that she was to write it down and give it to Penny.

"In a 'Snack', there is a valuable snake guarding a number. Find it and the hollowed out buttocks of a super hero."

Everyone had a confused look on their face. Penny jumped exclaiming she knows the riddle. She ran over to can of fake peanut brittle that Sheldon opened when she needed to borrow some money. She anticipated the snake popping out. The money was gone but there was a slip of paper in the bottom that had a combination on it. She then grabbed the superhero statue from on top of the book case and pulled off the secret cover. Inside was a note to move the DNA statue. She then ran over to move the statue. There in the floor was the combination panel to a safe. Leonard was shocked as he didn't know that was even there. Inside was a journal along with a small box.

The title of the Journal was called Hippy Thoughts. Inside were Sheldon's log of various encounters he had with Penny and the feelings he had. Penny couldn't help but laugh. This was just like him to do something like this. She flipped to the last entry. Sheldon simply wrote that he loved her. As tear began to sting the back of her eyes, she opened the box not knowing what to expect. Inside a protective clear shell laid a Penny Blossom. A label said it was the first one that her and Sheldon made together. She thought that Nimoy napkin was his most valued treasure, but that is simply laying loose in a small safe box. The amount of care and thought that went into protecting this Penny Blossom showed her just how much she means to him. She clutches it close to her chest as though it was a lifeline. The tears are pouring freely down her face. She tells everyone that she will be back in a few minutes and then walks out of the apartment. They could hear her walk up the stairs to the roof. She is gone for almost an hour. When she comes back in, they could see that she has not only showered, but has gotten dressed. On her back is her emergency evacuation backpack that Sheldon made her. She is still clutching the Penny Blossom. In her hair though, is a matching one. She faces the group and announces with a glint in her eye.

"If Sheldon thinks I don't love him, it Junior Rodeo time! Amy where is he? I need a plane ticket. If Sheldon wants to start fresh somewhere else, I'm not going to stop him, but I'll be damn if I let him start one without me!"


End file.
